Tuesday, September 11, 2012

One of my favorite behavior economics thought leaders, Steve
Dubner of Freakonomics fame, was on Marketplace this week (see podcasthere).The topic was also one of my
favorites – beer.Specifically, it was
on the counterintuitive notion that selling more beer inside a sports stadium
decreases problems from alcohol misuse.

The common assumption we make is that the easier it is to buy alcohol
inside the stadium, the more people will drink and the more problems that will
occur.But that is ignoring the
behavioral science.

First, we need to think about the alternative.What are people doing now?They hang out in the parking lot before the
game and drink.Because this is alcohol
that is purchased earlier, there is less of a cost-consciousness limiting the
volume imbibed.Also, because of the
perceived time pressure, fans were chugging rather than drinking – making it
more likely that they would drink a greater volume than they planned.Then they might also sneak some alcohol into
the game (or sneak back to the parking lot during halftime) to drink more.Again, the cost and time pressures lead to
greater volumes.

But, if it is cheaper and easier
and faster to tailgate and sneak in alcohol, why would having alcohol available
inside make any difference?Wouldn’t
fans just ignore it and keep doing what they are doing?Nope.It turns out that making it a little easier to drink inside can activate
our laziness tendency.Tailgating and
sneaking both require some advance planning.This employs a part of the brain that has a high relative mental workload
and that we try to avoid behaviorally.So we
jump at any excuse not to plan.Then
once we are in the stadium, the long lines and expensive prices act as real
time barriers to over-consuming.

This is based on very little
real data.West Virginia tried it for
football games.Alcohol related security
calls went down 34%.The athletic
director (who happens to be first round draft pick Andrew Luck’s dad) is
advising other schools so more data is coming.But I can predict that the benefits will depend on the balance between
the perceived time, money, and workload of buying beer inside the stadium and
the perceived time, money, and workload of tailgating and sneaking alcohol
in.